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Wednesday, October 31, 2007

I was a voracious trick-or-treater. For a long time. I mean, all the way through high school. There are some people out there who say “a high school kid a little old to be trick-or-treating.”

I know. I met about 10 of them on the last Halloween that I ever went trick-or-treating.

Rude. Rude people. Can’t a 16-year-old get some free candy?! A high school kid is to old to go door-to-door and pick up some free chocolate?! Oh my! Trick-or-treating is for kids but put some free cubes of Salisbury steak in tiny paper cups at Costco and suddenly these same self-righteous jerks are like a bunch of kindergartners at snack time!

Okay, I’m still a little bitter. But those bastards left some scars. I’ve always gone out of my way to avoid any kind of humiliation. That includes dressing up at Halloween. The only reason I put myself out there like that was because of the candy. I was a fat kid who loved candy. Is that a crime?

(Come to think of it, the jerk adults might have mostly taken issue with my “costume.” But in all fairness, all it takes to be a bandit is a bandana, right? I mean, is there any other distinguishing article of clothing? Cowboy boots? Did bandits only exist in the old west? No. And, yes, that’s where I got the idea from for the Halloween short).

I say that the “adults” were jealous. And they had every right to be. I was having fun! I was getting free candy.

Free!

Candy!

So I’m telling you, no matter how old you are, you should go trick-or-treating. Go tonight. Don’t feel old.

Go.

If you don’t, you’ll never know the thrill of being told you’re a loser for wanting someone else to buy your candy for you.

Better yet, don’t dress up. Screw that. How many years have you been dressing up without going trick-or-treating? Office parties? Community block parties? Demonic orgies? Haven’t you dressed up enough? Haven’t you built up enough “candy equity” over the years? That’s right, you have. So get out there, explain to whomever answers the door what your philosophy is and get some candy!

Also, I did the research, but there are still two inaccuracies in the Halloween special. Can you find them? No, they have nothing to do with transvestites. And yes, a Gaff is a real thing. Look it up. Especially at work!

Thursday, October 18, 2007

[Okay, up front, I stole this post from the LFTI blog. But I wrote it so I felt like I could. I'm a lazy blogger.]

It turns out that resolution(s) are not just for the New Year, because last time I checked, it was still October (although, as old as I am now, I’ll blink and it’ll be August again).

I suppose my point here is that…we have added “Hi-Resolution” versions of every episode! Yeah! Now, when you subscribe to iTunes, you won’t have to sit and watch crappy recomressed files!

(Okay, I just want to take a second here to let you know that we do indeed have a proper iTunes page now! I was afraid that they’d let us twist in the wind, but they didn’t. Good ‘ol Apple. Maybe they’d feature us if they knew that we do the entire show on a Mac? I dunno. But I wanted to say that you can subscribe to us through the iTunes store now. We’re under Podcasts/Comedy. Just search for “Life From The Inside.” You may have to look closely, but we’re there! Although Episode 4 seems to be missing at the moment...)(Right, back to the post)

Yes, thanks to blip.tv (seriously, one of the best sites on the Internet. Go there and give them some love – and tell them to feature us!) we now have super-high quality versions of each and every episode.

I can’t stress enough how different your viewing experience will be when you watch the hi-resolution files. You’ll notice stuff like subtle facial expressions, set decorations…actors.

Gone are the days of feeling like you’re watching our show in a Saharan sand storm. Say “goodbye” to tinny, indiscernible musical cues and lines. Say “hello” to the era of noticing audio edits, boom shadows and crap that we accidentally forget to remove from the kitchen.

Yes, the videos are that high quality. But don’t let the boom shadows frighten you, the show is – dare I say – 200 times more enjoyable when you can see stuff (that’s a scientifically proven fact…trust me…don’t research it).

The files have not been changed for episode 5, but episodes 1-4 are new and looking great. They’re also looking huge. So when you click on the “watch in hi-resolution” button on the respective episode’s page, give it a moment to load before you watch. I case you forget we’ve included a gentle reminder on each page.

I’ll leave you with some thumbnails that I made to upload to blip.tv. They’re tiny on Blip, so I figured I’d show you a few here. I did make them after all, you might as well look at them.

ROBB

TAM's “Mason Moment” brought to you by Life From The Inside:

My computer wants me to capitalize the word “Internet.” I’m sure it’s proper. Why would my computer lie? But I’m not very comfortable with the idea. At best, it makes me feel like the Internet is a person or a proper place (Like “The Louvre” not like “the bathroom”), at worst, it makes me feel like I should worship it.

Maybe I’d feel better if we stopped capitalizing “God?” Maybe we should stop capitalizing the Louvre while we’re at it…or people’s names. Don’t people have big enough egos already?

Damn you Internet! Who do you think you are anyway? Free porn does not a deity make, pal.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Halloween is nipping at our heels…no, wait, Halloween can’t be nipping at our heels right? That would insinuate that it was coming up on us from behind, wouldn’t it?

Halloween is nipping at our…noses. Like Jack Frost. But instead of just taking a little nibble, Halloween wants to eat your face off!

Let’s just say that Halloween is almost here. There. That works for me.

And is there a better way to celebrate one of the best and most demonic (unrelated) holidays then by making a short special for internet distribution? No. There is no better way to celebrate this holiday. If the only thing you do to celebrate is dress up in a costume and give out candy, then you’re lame, sir. Lame.

Okay, I shouldn’t get so down on you. Especially since I would like you to watch LFTI’s Halloween special “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Mason!” It’s showing on better browsers everywhere! You can see it here.

And don't forget to watch it in "Hi-Resolution." Just click on the link when you get to the page!

We actually shot this short sometime in early-to-mid July. Not very “Octobery” I know. But a necessity. Let’s just say that it was very hot. Very, very hot. It reminded me why we don’t have Halloween in the summertime. No one wants to wear a complicated costume in the summer. I mean, apart from Live Action Role Playing Gamers. But they’re a little bizarre anyway.

We had one special guest star for this short. A very special guest star indeed. The irrepressible Zoe Archer. She’s a published novelist! Check out her stuff on Amazon.com. We cast her because she is a published novelist and not because she is short. Author, yes. Short, no. (You should definitely pick up a copy of Lady X’s Cowboy. It’ll enhance your enjoyment of a short that we will be releasing in the future…okay, the short doesn’t have much to do with the novel, but the book does play a major role).

Anyway, go and check out the new short. While you’re there, if you find yourself saying “man, this is a well functioning page that this short is hosted on” – and I’m sure you will – I just wanted to let you know that I made it. Yes, I have taken up website maintenance. I can copy and paste like a mo-fo.

Fun Fact: Someday, someone will come up to you and say “Don’t be a pansy, it doesn’t hurt that much to be pelted with eggs. They’re eggs! How badly could they hurt?”

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Some of you may have already discovered that episode 5 is online. But it really hasn’t been “official” just yet. We never put it on the website. Why? Because we were waiting for the new and super-duper-spectacularly-improved website to go up!

And it’s up!

Here are a couple screenshots to whet your appetite.

Doesn’t that make you want to go there?

So why not take a minute to got to lifefromtheinside.com and poke around. If you’ve already seen our fabulous new episode (episode 5), and all of our other episodes for that matter, then just wander and look at the sights. Like a tourist. Don’t forget your camera.

The new website is by our great friend and web diva Lauren. You could take some time out and go to her site as well. Let her know what a great job she’s done.

If you haven’t seen all of our episodes, then watch them for crying out loud!

The new site has many exciting features. The most exciting being that you can now watch a “high resolution” version of our shows (well, Episode 5 anyway…the others aren’t up just yet). Just click on “Episode 5” on the “episodes” page and then click on the “watch in hi-resolution” link. A popup will be your window to higher quality, stereo goodness.

Also, I’ve included a new banner to the sidebar of this blog to direct people to the sitcom. Why not click on it and see if it works?!

The new website also includes a blog. The old website had a blog too, we just didn’t ever use it. But we will now. I promise. There are also comments for each section of each episode. Don’t be afraid to use them.

Exciting!

Fun Fact: Adam and I started cutting together another short last night. I don’t want to give anything away but, lately, I’ve been trying to learn how to play the piano like Vince Guaraldi (not an easy task, especially since I seem to be woefully uncoordinated).